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How do I tell them I don't speak japanese?

I do not speak any japanese. But I would like to be able to tell that to the japanese players who speak to me. So I googled for it, and now I'm more confused than ever, because I found so many different ways and don't know which one is best. I am looking for something which is reasonably short, I don't want to be rude, but I don't want to type 20 words either.

"watashi" = I
"wa" is a topic marker, in this case marking you yourself as the topic of the sentence.
"wo" (in this case pronounced "o") is a particle indicating direct objects, there are other particles like "ga", "de", "ni", "he" etc.
"hanasu" = to speak
"wakaru" = to understand
"yomu" = to read

If you prefer to get all fancy and type it out yourself then you're asking for confusion. (hint: translator was made to decrease confusion)

I get replies from Japanese players all the time who use the "I don't understand." But now if they got all fancy and learned how to type out, "Hello! Sorry, but I do not speak the English language." Well then I'd mistakenly assume he might be able to understand certain words or simple phrases since he managed to say that much. Then we'd have a mess as I try to send messages like "trade? kazham party? you need help? poisona me please?" and them not even having a clue what I'm saying regardless of the relatively well written initial reply.

Your intentions are nice to make an effort to have a personal reply, but you'd be best off using the translator within the community.

Are you sure that will prevent confusion? Will they see that I was using the translator? Otherwise they might think that I didn't understand what they said for another reason than me not speaking japanese.

Can I somehow macro the translator? I would have been able to do that with a romanji phrase.

Anyway, I'll try the translator too and see what the reactions to it are.

I always use : Nihongo dekinai or if I feel like trying my best at Japanese I say nihongo wa amari dekinai no which translates as I don't speak Japanese WELL. Hope that helps.

Sorry to bump an older thread like this, but I just have to ask this.

Wouldn't "nihongo wa amari ii deki no" be the correct way to say it? I'm quite the noob at Japanese, so I don't really know if that is a good way to say it. To me it seems like "amari dekinai" would be closer to "is not of not very quality" when translated directly.

Also, you don't mention yourself at all in the sentence. I know Japanese is very much based on understanding the context, but couldn't saying that phrase seem like you are mocking the Japanese language?

Oh and hello to everyone. I recently ordered the game and it should arrive around Christmas. I'm looking forward to meeting some of you people online. :spin:

A bit off topic, but I wish FFXI had a translation option for "I'm using a translator." I had someone speak to me in Japanese about a PT and all I could do was say that I couldn't understand in English. I was looking up how to use the translator and they said "goodnit" and I used the translator to say "Good Night!" as well and they replied in Japanese and I didn't know what they were saying.. :sweat: I didn't know how to say that I was using the translator to be polite...